The Koreans overcame Japan 6-5 on penalties on Saturday night after the game had finished goalless in normal and extra time.

"I have decided to resign," said Verbeek. "I have asked the KFA before today's match to terminate my contract which was for 2008 and they agreed with that.

"It's time for a new challenge," he added.

Verbeek served as an assistant coach at the last two FIFA World Cups with his compatriots Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat.

"I have had enough time in Korea and I have great memories in the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in addition to the Asian Games in Doha and this year's Asian Cup," he said.

"I will leave Korea with great memories but it's time now for a new challenge."

Verbeek talked about the size of his task with South Korea before the AFC Asian Cup finals and lamented that fact that he was deprived of three of his best players, Park Ji-sung, Lee Young-pyo and Seol Ki-hyun, due to injury.

He continued: "Before the tournament we had a target to win the Asian Cup title but we were very disappointed to lose our best players due to injury and the situation was really bad for us.

"But I have to be fair; we didn't score enough goals in the tournament despite that we had a good defence. However in such big tournaments you have to score goals in order to win.

"I will use this opportunity to thank my staff as they all did a great job in the tournament and I was happy to work with my assistant Afshin Ghotbi and I think that Iran should sign him as soon as possible because he is a good coach," he added.

"It was great pleasure also to work with Hong Myung-bo as he is the future of Korean football. Also the goalkeepers' coach did a good job to prepare (Lee) Woon-jae despite (the fact) that he is 35 year-old.

"In general, we had great moments here in the Asian Cup and I will not forget this tournament," he said. "It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it."

Verbeek refused to speak about his future plans and said that in the next five months he will take a long break before returning to coaching again and added that he might accept any interesting offers from any Asian side.

"It is time for a long break in order to get enough energy for the next 10 years or so," he said. "Now I go back to Korea where I will spend few days before heading back to Europe.

"After coaching the South Korean Olympic team and the national team, I've lost my energy and it's time to find energy and find something new," he continued.

"But I would consider any interesting offer; an offer with potential and interest which can give me good time like the one I had in Korea.

"However, for the next five months I would say 'No, thank you'."